From his aunt’s supper, from his own foolish speech, from the wine and dancing, the merry-making when saying good-night in the hall, the pleasure of the walk along the river in the snow.
From the dinner party to the cold night, the contrast of the atmosphere of two places let readers truly feel Gabriel's loneliness.
Poor Aunt Julia! She, too, would soon be a shade with the shade of Patrick Morkan and his horse.
The heartbroken fact is that nobody can avoid death. No matter how different people are from others, they have the same result - death. Reading this story, readers can realize this fact, which gives this story power to let readers feel desperate.
She felt a soft wet substance with her fingers and was surprised that nobody spoke or took off her bandage.
I doubt that the soft wet substance is clay. After searching online, I find that in the custom of Halloween, if you touch the clay, you will die next year. Maria is still alone at that age. Dying alone must be a very tragic result.
but also because she did not wish it to be thought that in her wise innocence she had divined the intention behind her mother’s tolerance.
Polly seems very innocent but she knows what her mother will do under this circumstance. It is like that she lured her mother to force Mr. Doran to marry her.
“Can’t you tell us?” he said. “Did you try her?”
He is so excited even anxious to know the result, which shows that he is actually eager to have a relationship instead of being alone.
“Daybreak, gentlemen!”
There is no time to cover up his folly. I think this story is satirizing people who are desperately getting involved in the upper class.
She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.
Her mother had a tragic life, devoting herself to the whole family. Eveline tried to change her life instead of having the same experience with her mom but she failed because of her duty to the family, which may criticize women's inequality status at that time.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.
The reason why he came to the bazaar is that he wanted to buy something for the girl he liked but he bought nothing and picked up two pennies that did not belong to him. His desire changed from love to money, which made him feel bad.
Lest I should betray my agitation I delayed a few moments pretending to fix my shoe properly and then, saying that I was obliged to go, I bade him good-day. I went up the slope calmly but my heart was beating quickly with fear that he would seize me by the ankles.
After listening to the man's monologue, the boy became so anxious. I guess he must have done every thing the man said.
Eliza resumed: “Wide-awake and laughing-like to himself…. So then, of course, when they saw that, that made them think that there was something gone wrong with him….”
I am wondering why this story is called 'The Sisters'.
I found it strange that neither I nor the day seemed in a mourning mood and I felt even annoyed at discovering in myself a sensation of freedom as if I had been freed from something by his death.
The sensation of freedom has nothing to do with happiness but is related to the fact that the boy will not learn things the Rev. James Flynn has taught him that are complex and mysterious, which people need to take plenty of courage to learn. Therefore, his death lets him feel relaxed.
She didn’t even recognise him again.
She was freaking out because of the fat man's description about the bleak future. However, she was too young to truly understand that kind of experience so that she forgot the man vary quickly.
But deep inside her a little girl threw her pinafore over her head and sobbed.
It is truly sad that the girl has not enjoyed the ball but knows the bleak future in advance.
I didn’t like leaving her; I knew I’d be worrying all the time. At last I asked her if she’d rather I put it off. “Oh no, Ellen,” she said, “you mustn’t mind about me. You mustn’t disappoint your young man.” And so cheerful, you know, madam, never thinking about herself.
The relation between them is really close. The maid loves and cares about her lady. And the lady respects her maid. No wonder the maid can make such great sacrifices for her lady later.
Perhaps, he thought vaguely, he had been asleep for a long time. He’d been forgotten. What had all this to do with him—this house and Charlotte, the girls and Harold—what did he know about them? They were strangers to him. Life had passed him by. Charlotte was not his wife. His wife!
Old Mr. Neave in The Ideal Family is like William in Marriage a La Mode, whose family members 'enjoy life' much better than themselves.
Slowly it swam towards the Picton boat
The fact was that the Picton boat swam to the landing-stage but the author wrote the landing-stage swam to the Picton boat. The transformation of reference system is quite interesting.
No, it was too difficult. “I’ll—I’ll go with them, and write to William later. Some other time. Later. Not now. But I shall certainly write,” thought Isabel hurriedly.
Even in this kind of situation, she still cannot refuse hedonism.
“We ought to have a gramophone for the weekends that played ‘The Maid of the Mountains.’” “Oh no! Oh no!” cried Isabel’s voice. “That’s not fair to William. Be nice to him, my children! He’s only staying until to-morrow evening.”
Although William is the husband and the father in this family, his thoughts seem incompatible with those of his wife and children and other family members' attitude to him is not respectful enough.
She couldn’t go home; Ethel was there. It would frighten Ethel out of her life. She couldn’t sit on a bench anywhere; people would come arsking her questions. She couldn’t possibly go back to the gentleman’s flat; she had no right to cry in strangers’ houses. If she sat on some steps a policeman would speak to her.
She was so poor that she even cannot find a place to cry.
Good heavens—why! I—I don’t mind it a bit. I—I like waiting.
People around her always have misunderstanding about her. They conjecture her opinion but forget the fact that she is just a young girl.
“Oh well, give me one,” said she. The silver tongs dropped one, two, three—and a cherry tartlet. “I don’t know why you’re giving me all these,” she said, and nearly smiled. “I shan’t eat them; I couldn’t!”
Maybe because of her 'noble' manners, she has a really wired temper, dares not tell her true feelings, and gets used to camouflaging herself.
“Now the question is,” said Josephine, bending forward, “whether we shall keep her or not.”
Finally, they are trying to take charge of things by themselves instead of depending on their father or Kate.
She heard him absolutely roaring. “And do you expect me to pay for this gimcrack excursion of yours?”
She is not used to the fact that her father has passed away. When facing problems, she always recalls how her father would deal with them.
“Daddy darling, can’t the band have something to drink?”
Laura is such a considerate and kind girl.
Laura said faintly “Is it?” and smiled up at Laurie, and didn’t tell him after all.
Why didn't Laura tell Laurie her concern? I guess that because Laurie praised her hat as her mother did, she automatically classified them as the same kind of people and she thought there is no use to tell them her concern.
Then the karaka-trees would be hidden. And they were so lovely, with their broad, gleaming leaves, and their clusters of yellow fruit. They were like trees you imagined growing on a desert island, proud, solitary, lifting their leaves and fruits to the sun in a kind of silent splendour. Must they be hidden by a marquee?
Not only is Laura concerned about the lily-lawn but also she hopes to keep the karakas in the sight. In her opinion, everything has its own merits and cannot be missed. From this character, I think she is a lovely and kind girl.
Yes! after the lapse of eight centuries, the Moonstone looks forth once more, over the walls of the sacred city in which its story first began.
The moonstone that gave birth to this story and killed Rosanna and Godfrey indirectly finally return to the position where it should be.
With the relation of this extraordinary circumstance, my reappearance in these pages comes to an end.
Betteredge has true emotion to ROBINSON CRUSOE. When he is pleased, he will read it. When he is confused, he will also read it. When he is upset, he will still read it. Maybe we can collect Betteredge's words and behaviors around the key word ROBINSON CRUSOE to find something interesting.
It also struck me as odd that he told the boy (after having previously encouraged him to follow us), to wait in the room below till we came down again.
Sergeant Cuff is quite considerate. He had predicted that it was a murder. To protect the boy, he asked him to wait in the room.
Speaking as a man, I consider you to be a person whose head is full of maggots, and I take up my testimony against your experiment as a delusion and a snare. Don’t be afraid, on that account, of my feelings as a man getting in the way of my duty as a servant! You shall be obeyed. The maggots notwithstanding, sir, you shall be obeyed. If it ends in your setting the house on fire, Damme if I send for the engines, unless you ring the bell and order them first!
Betteredge is a really stubborn person. However, this personality also makes him stick to his duty. Even if Betteredge thinks that Mr. Jennings is doing something crazy, he still follows his directions.
In the next sentence the everlasting Ezra Jennings appeared again!
This recurring character seems a little bit abrupt.
I did these strange things, because I loved you.
The reason why Rosanna did those strange things is not to protect Rachel. Now, I totally believe that Rachel is innocent.
I found the mark, and read–MY OWN NAME.
By this clue, Sergeant Cuff's deduction seems on the wrong way.
There was a story (was there not?) about Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.
In the first period, Mr. Godfrey seems very innocent. However, in the second period, according to Miss Clack and Mr. Murthwaite's account, Mr. Godfrey becomes more and more suspicious.
“You have forgotten the Moonstone, Mr. Bruff. Have I not braved public opinion, THERE, with my own private reasons for it?”
In my opinion, from Rachel's words and behaviors, she is not suspicious anymore. According to her love to Franklin and Rosanna's excessive decision, I guess that Rachel's private reasons are related to these three people's relationship.
“If you will have it, Rachel–scandal says that the Moonstone is in pledge to Mr. Luker, and that I am the man who has pawned it.”
No wonder Mr. Godfrey was so excited to help Mr. Luker explain. The main reason is that he is the biggest victim of this rumor.
Here surely was a case for a clergyman, if ever there was one yet! Lady Verinder had thought it a case for a physician.
The background of the story is at the turning point of the times. Clack's contempt for physician and Franklin's argument with Dr. Candy shows that science is still at the initial stage.
It tells me she has debts she daren’t acknowledge, that must be paid.
I realized that the moonstone may not truly have curse but people's greed makes people who have relation with the moonstone have no good days.
Instead of resisting Penelope, as she had done the moment before, she now let my daughter take her by the arm and lead her back to the house.
Successive blows made Rosanna thoroughly desperate.
But, now my attention was roused, I heard the dogs uneasy, and the wind moaning low. Looking up at the sky, I saw the rack of clouds getting blacker and blacker, and hurrying faster and faster over a watery moon. Wild weather coming–Samuel was right, wild weather coming.
The weather shows that something is going to happen.
I dare say I had deserved his reproof–but I was not going to help him to set traps for Rosanna Spearman, for all that. Thief or no thief, legal or not legal, I don’t care–I pitied her.
Betteredge is so kind that I feel that his eyes are blinded by his pity.
“Are they free (with your compliments) to fidget up and downstairs, and whisk in and out of their bed-rooms, if the fit takes them?” “Perfectly free,” said the Sergeant.
Compared with the superintendent, Sergeant Cuff took a completely different method and attitude to let women-servants willing to offer help, which is the same goal. Clearly, Sergeant Cuff knows more about the art of communication.
And so it ends in your spoiling canvas with paints, and making a smell in the house; or in keeping tadpoles in a glass box full of dirty water, and turning everybody’s stomach in the house; or in chipping off bits of stone here, there, and everywhere, and dropping grit into all the victuals in the house; or in staining your fingers in the pursuit of photography, and doing justice without mercy on everybody’s face in the house.
In a normal person's opinion, art is like making destroy. The author may be satirizing people who do not understand art.
“I never knew you cruel before, father,” she said, very gently, and went out.
Penelope is very kind and empathetic. From her father's and her response, we can tell the difference of ideas between generations.
That a young woman, with dozens of nice walks to choose from, and company to go with her, if she only said “Come!” should prefer this place, and should sit and work or read in it, all alone, when it’s her turn out, I grant you, passes belief.
This sentence shows Rosanna's character that is unsociable and strange. Meanwhile, this description about her daily behavior makes me feel that she is somewhat mysterious. I vaguely feel that she must play an important role in this story.
One age followed another–and still, generation after generation, the successors of the three Brahmins watched their priceless Moonstone, night and day.
Because of the deity's command, three Brahmins pour all they have, even their offspring, to watch the Moonstone. In this process, even if they do not get any material return, they are willing to do so. I believe this is exactly the force of faith.